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// The Medbay 
// Story: Faster Than the Stars 
// by Erie 
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Teron paced back and forth while occasionally looking over to Nox and the strange horse bat thing they were with. Because winged horse bats that the Federation didn't even have records of were just something slavers happened to have hidden in pods within their ships now apparently. And they also didn't register at all with normal sensors, even the medbay's ones as they had found out. 

Thankfully, Nox being as brilliant with technology as they are had just manually directed the nano medi-bots in the operation on it instead, making various assumptions about it which thankfully turned out alright in the end, managing to get it breathing again at least. But he still couldn't help but wonder, what in the world was it? Why did the slavers even have it? How-

Veran cleared from one of the seats within the observation room and Teron paused while looking over to him. "Hey captain, you good? I'm starting to think that the floor underneath you might start to wear away with how much you're pacing right now."

Teron blinked for a moment before shaking his head. What was he doing getting so caught up in his thoughts like that? "Oh uh, I apologize about that. I'm just trying to... process this entire situation I suppose. I was prepared for a lot of things when we began this mission. Ending up with a strange purple horse bat in our care that we can't even perform basic scans on was certainly one not on that list."

Veran chuckled, "Heh, I definitely gotta agree with you there. But the best thing we can do right now? Put down some basic info we've learned about her into the database ourselves and some very likely things about her before committing ourselves to just keeping an eye on it. Because whatever they are, I doubt they'll be able to break down the blast doors at the very least. Can't believe though that they'll be our first use of the Kestrel's beautiful new doors though."

Teron nodded as he thought about it. "Yeah, that's a good idea. Put down what we know about it before continuing onward towards the Federation Base and if possible bring her into a trusted place in Zoltan or Engi space for them to take care of. Though, this is certainly going to be awkward if we ever have to make use of the medbay before then... hmm, maybe we can separate it from the rest of the medbay somehow? Potentially, but we'd need to make quite a bit of time and use more scrap than-"

With a roll of his eyes, while Teron began to lose himself in thoughts once more Veran stood up and clapped one of his hands over Teron's back, smiling as he startled him out of his reverie. "Hey, one thing at a time captain. Let's get that information about her down first before considering anything like that. I'm sure Nox has learned quite a bit seeing as he's been the one manually directing her treatments. And while you're doing that, I'll keep an eye on our external sensors and make sure nothing else is coming to jump us without being spotted.

Teron did his best to fight his rising embarrassment as he straightened up. "You're right, you're right. I suppose this entire situation has me flustered. Let me just get a pad ready to record this all down in first." He quickly detached one of the empty monitors within the room and it flickered for just a moment booting up once more in its more mobile version. In just a few moments he had it set up to document new medical records about it. 

"Of course I am captain. I'll let you know if anything comes up on the sensors."

"Thank you Veran, I don't know what I'd do without you sometimes." As Veran left Teron took a deep breath before switching on the observation room's two-way comm system and speaking to Nox. "Hey Nox, in lieu of there being no information on our new resident Veran figured it'd be a good idea to establish some records for them ourselves and I agree with him. With you having had ample time with them now would you mind describing any of your observations on them if now is a good time? I have a pad keyed to record whatever you might say about it with me."

Nox turned from the monitor they were currently interfacing with and towards Teron before nodding. "That is a reasonable idea and I am not truly preoccupied at the moment. Let me know when I am good to begin."

Teron tapped the record button on the pad before giving a thumbs up and a nod to Nox.

Nox took that as their cue to begin. "After an encounter with slavers of an unknown faction, a previously unknown species has been discovered. It is currently unclear if they are the product of genetic engineering or an indigenous species of a currently unknown planet, but they do bear a striking resemblance to two different species originally present on the human homeworld of Earth. The pony and the bat. For now, I will be assigning them the name Equus Ferus Chiroptera, or the much simpler term which I will be using, bat pony."

They motioned one of their arms to the now aptly named bat pony before continuing. "This particular member of the species is a female, though they appear to be suffering from malnutrition and from a variety of other issues, though at the current moment it is difficult to confirm any of these as true due to sensors seemingly being unable to detect her presence. The cause of this is currently unknown. They are unlikely to carry any diseases with them that a functional medbay wouldn't be able to deal with as can be inferred by the many physical and electrical marks left on her by said slavers and the fact said slavers used to be active. She also used to have a variety of metal restraints on for a prolonged period of time which have since been removed and replaced with far looser, Federation regulation restraints. They will still restrict her movement to just a few feet from the bed, but they will not cause any markings unless she continually strains against them, in which case they will tighten."

Nox paused for a moment before heading next to the unconscious bat pony laying on a medical bed. "Her fur is a faded dark purple and her mane and tail are a similarly faded yellow with a single green streak running through them both. She also appears to have a distinct marking on both sides of her flank. A simple constellation. This all appears to be naturally occurring and not the result of any sort of dyes but without the ability to scan her this cannot be confirmed. It is more likely than not that she is the product of genetic engineering. It is unknown how long she will stay unconscious. For now, until sensors can be configured to properly see her there is not much more to add." And with that Nox fell silent.

Teron stopped the recording while processing all the information Nox had just given him. "Thank you, Nox. Though I do think we need to get moving again so for now I'm going to ask you to head back to the shield before I start up the FTL drive and head to the next beacon. Would you be able to keep an eye on the medbay though when she does wake up? You would be the closest and probably best suited of us all to handle and keep her calm when she does. Certainly better than me at least because I can tell you right now, dealing with strange alien animals I've never seen before is not my forte."

Nox nodded. "That is acceptable captain."

"Thank you, Nox. Hopefully, whenever we get back to the Federation base they'll know what to do with her."





I woke up feeling both exhausted and surprisingly comfortable. What had even happened last ni-

I froze as I was assaulted by the terrible memories of what had happened. Of how hard it was to breathe. Of how cold it got. Of the terrifying explosions that had been rumbling throughout my prison. The one I was still stuck within. With a muffled whimper I slowly opened up my eyes expecting to see the cold metal walls of my prison. I ended up staring in shock at what greeted me instead.

I was no longer within my prison. I was in a bed, an honest-to-goodness bed. I was now surrounded by all sorts of magical contraptions now in a far more spacious room than I had ever been in since I had been taken from my home. My metal restraints were almost all gone now except for a few which had been replaced by some type of stretchy yet comfy blue cloth, and while I still felt sore I could actually properly move.

For an entire minute I simply just stared around as a feeling I thought I wouldn't ever feel again began to blossom in my chest. Hope. Had I been rescued and now finally free? Was I going to be able to go back home?

And then the door opened to the sight of a terrifying bipedal metal thing with a flat plane of green glass for its face entering the room. It was decidedly not a pony who had saved me nor one of my wardens. I screamed.